In the state of the art, cutting systems for combines are usually driven by drive shafts, which extend between a header drive shaft, which is coupled to the lower feeder house roller, and one or both lateral ends of the header, i.e., essentially perpendicular to the direction of travel (see DE 199 18 550 A). In particular, drive shafts that can telescope are used if the cutting system is to complete a pendulum-like motion about a horizontal axis in the direction of travel on its suspension on the feeder house. Before the cutting system can be separated from the combine for transport, the drive shaft is manually removed from the feeder house and reattached before receiving another header, which represents a significant expense of time.
A few types of headers, particularly for harvesting corn, are provided with side parts, which can swing upwards into a transport position and which are articulated at a center part. For these headers, usually a drive shaft that can telescope extends between the header drive shaft of the feeder house and the outer edge of the center part. The drive shaft drives a drive shaft of the center part, which is in drive connection with the individual feeding and picking devices. The drive shafts of the side parts are connected, in turn, through releasable couplings to the drive shaft of the center part. When the outer parts are swung upwards, the couplings are automatically decoupled. They automatically close again when the parts are swung down. Due to the rather small amount of available space, particularly for swinging headers, which are attached to a combine, it can be considered a disadvantage that the drive shaft must provide a relatively large area for changes in angle and length. Therefore, rather complicated and cost intensive drive shafts are required.
For other embodiments, the feeder house is coupled by short shafts to releasable couplings of the header, which are connected to drive shafts. The drive shafts drive the side parts, which, in turn, are in drive connection through other releasable couplings with the driven devices of the center part. When the side parts are swung upwards, the couplings are automatically separated. However, such headers cannot execute a pendulum-like motion. In turn, for other embodiments, a drive shaft that can telescope is provided between the feeder house and the outer sides. This does enable a pendulum-like motion, but requires manual removal of the drive shaft before the side parts can be moved into the transport position.
A drive train for the row units of a corn picker are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,853 B. An angular gear, from which a shaft extends forwards to the corn picker, is attached to an output shaft mounted on the front side of the feeder house and extending perpendicular to the direction of travel of the combine. There the shaft drives a shift transmission via an angular gear. The shift transmission, in turn, drives the main drive shaft running perpendicular to the direction of travel via an angular gear articulated to the picker so that it can swing. Pendulum-like motion of the corn picker on the feeder house is not mentioned and would also not be possible due to the gear arrangement.